Happy Birthday Raine!

As they grew older, Keke took the initiative in helping their parents with her sister, which forced her to grow up sooner while Raine had a relatively normal upbringing. She learned to put the tragedy of her older brother, who she could barely remember, behind her and develop emotionally through her experiences with peers.

By Natasha Penn in Aquarius, Characters, Saturn Rising on February 23, 2021February 22, 2021

This will be the last birthday bio for February, so let’s celebrate the final elemental sorcerer of the Zulwini Tribe: Raine Porter!

Basic Info:

Age in Aquarius: 21
Height: 5’7 | Weight: 120 lbs.
Hair: thick onyx divided into two braided buns (usually)
Eyes: amber brown
Human Race: African-American | Species: Demon
Hailing Planet: Zulwini
Ability: elemental sorcery; aquamancy
Rank: none
Specialties: light on her feet, swift, decisive, excellent swimmer, intuitive
Best friends: Markeisha Porter, Pixie Vaughn, Zarina Attar, Emily Todd
Soul mate: will be revealed in a future book 😉

Three facts about Raine:

Her birth name is Jordyn Porter; she earned the nickname “Raine” from colonists after insisting on playing and dancing in storms. Keke would oftentimes join her.
Thanks to her love of experimenting with braids, twists, and wigs, she’s become the tribe’s unofficial hair stylist. She and Heather are an unstoppable duo!
Raine and Pixie are in an open relationship; she’s hoping time and her company will heal the porter’s broken heart. So far, it hasn’t.

My thoughts on Raine:

I’m happy to say that Raine is pretty different from her original concept. For one, she adds an interesting dynamic to the whole “Pixie still loves Amira but she’s developing feelings for Jeremy” thing. For another, I think she’s the perfect water user to add to the team. Water is complex and emotional, while Raine and Keke have a history of being practical and dry. As they grew older, Keke took the initiative in helping their parents with her sister, which forced her to grow up sooner while Raine had a relatively normal upbringing. She learned to put the tragedy of her older brother, who she could barely remember, behind her and develop emotionally through her experiences with peers. This emotional maturity gives her an insight into each member of her tribe, and she uses that insight and her own intuition to mentor them individually.

Outside of training, she spends most of her time with Pixie, comforting her as well as coaxing her to join the rest of the tribe in activities. Between her counselling and Harry’s words toward the end of Aquarius, we see Pixie actually engaged in conversation with both Amira and Zarina, implying that the rift between the porter and the couple is being bridged. There will be developments in Taurus that will force Pixie to meet Zarina halfway without Raine’s help, as the water sorceress will be trapped in her own battle elsewhere.

Raine has nothing against the Cronians–or any spirits from other groups, for that matter. She’s more focused on the day-to-day issues within her tribe, and she’s willing to do anything to keep her family together. She sends her mother photos every time they visit a new place, and she speaks with her parents over the phone at least once a week. Since Pixie and Amira’s families moved to Kansas City following their colony’s destruction, the Vaughns and the Cruzes have become close with the Porters. They get together every week around the time Raine is due to call, and the sorceress makes sure to hand the phone over to Mimi and Pix.

I’ve previously mentioned that I like to think of the Zulwini Tribe as a family unit, and that I’ve come up with familial labels for each of them. While this isn’t the last birthday bio for the Caelians–we’ll have four birthdays in March before the Poseideans have their turn–I want the last birthday bio for February to be special, since I only just started doing these this month. Perhaps I’ll think of something special to do once everyone has had at least one birthday bio written about them… Which, if I do things as they’re meant to be, then Amira won’t get one until 2024, sooo I’ll probably do one for her next year as an honorable mention/1 year anniversary for the bios.

Here’s the Caelian family, as I see it:

Parents/elders

“Sweet yet Stern Aunt” – Sabryna Blair
“Doting Mother” – Ravyn Wise
“Cool Aunt” – Markeisha Porter
“Pessimistic Pibling” – Gray Osborne
“Know-it-all Aunt” – Gwendolyn Reed

Siblings/Cousins

“Shy Cousin” – Winter Wolfe
“Crafty Big Sis” – Holly Burns
“Blunt Cousin” – Summer Wolfe
“Quirky Lil Sis” – Heather Burns
“Protective Older Brother” – Zarina Attar
“Fave Cousin Who Listens While You Rant” – Raine Porter
“Rebellious Teen” – Pixie Vaughn
“The Perfect Cousin You’re Compared To” – Emily Todd
“The Pretty Sister” – Amira Cruz

These are all just family tropes I’ve noticed that I feel fit their personalities, as well as help paint a mental image of the characters. These labels are also how some of the members see one another, and are based solely on personality and not age. For instance: Sabryna is the youngest member of the entire tribe, but her maturity and rank prompts most members to see her as an older guardian figure.

For those of you who don’t know, Raine is a supporting character in my trilogy Saturn Rising, which is the first installment of The Chronicles of Life & Death. The first book, Aquarius, is available now on Amazon as an e-book and paperback. You can even read it all for free with Kindle Unlimited! Learn more here.